Bogged Down by Blogging

I was just beating myself up (figuratively - it's had to really beat yourself up because it hurts!) about breaking my promise to Elaine Kiely Kearns, of KidLit 411 fame!  I told her I'd blog more regularly and that was almost 3 months ago - sorry Elaine!!  I thought about why I hadn't blogged more often this past year and I realized, it's because I've been busy blogging - on other people's sites!  


Here are some of the blog posts I've written in the past year:

~ I'm a regular contributor to a group blog called Word Disco - an Unexpected Party.  I wrote five posts there last year. The other amazing author/posters are: Jenni Bielecki, Meg Fleming, Renee Gian, Betsy Pritts Ickes, Megan Maynor, Stephen Shaskan, Trisha Speed Shaskan, Catherine Urdahl and Heather Zenzen.

~ I'm also a regular contributor (though I'm late a lot - sorry!) to Nancy Viau's wonderful blog for kids, WIT - Writing Info & Tips.  The other contributing authors are: Alisonn Formento and Margie Gelbwasser.

In addition to my series guest posts, I've also done one-time posts on a variety of other sites:

~ I did a post on Genres for Donna Martin's series, Writerly Wisdom.

~ I've contributed a few times to Marcie Flinchum Atkins' series, We're All in This Together.

~ I wrote a post and writing prompt about Rhythm  on Shannon Abercrombie's series, Start The Year off Write.

~ I contributed a Dot to Peter Reynold's Celebri-dots for International Dot Day, held on September 15th.

So, instead of beating myself up, I should be hoisting myself on my shoulders (definitely harder than beating yourself up) and patting myself on the back (that I can do!) for writing so many posts in the past year!

You can expect to see a lot more posts from me soon - 30 to be exact!  I'll be writing a poem-a-day in April for Poetry Month, as I did last year.  In each poem, I'll use a word suggested here or on my Facebook page.  I stole borrowed this idea from Ed DeCaria's March Madness Poetry Contest.  I made it to round three this year, with the words Protean, Rapturous, and Quotidian!  Next year I'm going all the way! 


If you know of anyone else participating in April Poetry Month, please share their info here for other poetry lovers!!   Also, please suggest words for my poems and come back in two days to read the first one! 

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KIDLIT 411

I can't believe I haven't posted since July!!  Well, really, I can since a lot has happened since then: 


~ My son got married in September, so the summer and early fall were packed full of wedding planning, showers and dress shopping!   


~ I went back to teaching full-time (I had been part-time teacher / part-time lead teacher for four years) so I have twice the number of students this year.  

~ On the writing side - I've been trying to find time to write and edit my picture book manuscripts; I joined my second critique group; I've done several guest posts on friends' blogs; I'm still a judge for Rate Your Story and submissions have skyrocketed; I've been doing a lot of critiques from my critique service; and I've been preparing for the May 13th release of my new book!




~ And, to be perfectly honest, I've wasted a lot of time on social media!

So, what does this have to do with KIDLIT 411?  I discovered this amazing new site and I contacted its founder, E. Kiely Kearns to tell her how awesome the site is and to ask if she'd add me to the list of critiquers.  She said she would and she'd link to my blog too if I started posting more regularly.  That's when I realized I hadn't posted since July!!  

So, I want to thank E. Kiely Kearns for creating her amazingly helpful and informative site and for the big nudge!  I just want to ask her one thing - where were you when I was getting started?  Oh yeah - in grade school :-)

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email updates from this blog (in the upper right hand side of the page).